1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to transistors and particularly to transistors utilizing field plates.
2. Description of the Related Art
High electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) are a common type of solid state transistor that are regularly fabricated from semiconductor materials such as Silicon (Si) or Gallium Arsenide (GaAs). One disadvantage of Si is that it has low electron mobility (600-1450 cm2/V−s), which produces a high source resistance. This resistance can degrade the Si based HEMT's high performance gain. [CRC Press, The Electrical Engineering Handbook, Second Edition, Dorf, p. 994, (1997)]
GaAs based HEMTs have become the standard for signal amplification in civil and military radar, handset cellular, and satellite communications. GaAs has a higher electron mobility (approximately 6000 cm2/V−s) and a lower source resistance than Si, which allows GaAs based devices to function at higher frequencies. However, GaAs has a relatively small bandgap (1.42 eV at room temperature) and relatively small breakdown voltage, which prevents GaAs based HEMTs from providing high power at high frequencies.
Improvements in the manufacturing of wide bandgap semiconductor materials such as AlGaN/GaN, has focused interest on the development of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs for high frequency, high temperature and high power applications. AlGaN/GaN has large bandgaps, as well as high peak and saturation electron velocity values [B. Belmont, K. Kim and M. Shur, J. Appl. Phys. 74, 1818 (1993)]. AlGaN/GaN HEMTs can also have two dimensional electron gas (2DEG) sheet densities in excess of 1013/cm2 and relatively high electron mobility (up to 2019 cm2/Vs) [R. Gaska, J. W. Yang, A. Osinsky, Q. Chen, M. A. Khan, A. O. Orlov, G. L. Snider and M. S. Shur, Appl. Phys. Lett., 72, 707 (1998)]. These characteristics allow AlGaN/GaN HEMTs to provide very high voltage and high power operation at RF, microwave and millimeter wave frequencies.
AlGaN/GaN HEMTs have been grown on sapphire substrates and have shown a power density of 4.6 W/mm and a total power of 7.6 W [Y. F. Wu et al., IEICE Trans. Electron., E-82-C, 1895 (1999)]. More recently, AlGaN/GaN HEMTs grown on SiC have shown a power density of 9.8 W/mm at 8 GHz [Y. F. Wu, D. Kapolnek, J. P. Ibbetson, P. Parikh, B. P. Keller and U. K. Mishra, IEEE Trans. Electron. Dev., 48, 586 (2001)] and a total output power of 22.9 at 9 GHz [M. Micovic, A Kurdoghlian, P. Janke, P. Hashimoto, D. W. S. Wong, J. S. Moon, L. McCray and C. Nguyen, IEEE Trans. Electron. Dev., 48, 591 (2001)]. U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,987 to Khan et al. discloses GaN/AlGaN based HEMTs grown on a buffer and a substrate. Other AlGaN/GaN HEMTs and field effect transistors (FETs) have been described by Gaska et al., “High-Temperature Performance of AlGaN/GaN HFET's on SiC Substrates,” IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. 18, No 10, October 1997, Page 492; and Ping et al., “DC and Microwave Performance of High Current AlGaN Heterostructure Field Effect Transistors Grown on P-type SiC Substrates,” IEEE Electron Devices Letters, Vol. 19, No. 2, February 1998, Page 54. Some of these devices have shown a gain-bandwidth product (fT) as high as 67 gigahertz [K. Chu et al. WOCSEMMAD, Monterey, Calif. (February 1998)] and high power densities up to 2.84 W/mm at 10 GHz [G. Sullivan et al., “High Power 10-GHz Operation of AlGaN HFET's in Insulating SiC,” IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. 19, No. 6, Page 198 (June 1998); and Wu et al., IEEE Electron Device Letters, Volume 19, No. 2, Page 50 (February 1998)].
Electron trapping and the resulting difference between DC and RF characteristics have been a limiting factor in the performance of GaN based transistors, such as AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. Silicon Nitride (SiN) passivation has been successfully employed to alleviate this trapping problem, which has resulted in high performance devices with power densities over 10 W/mm at 10 Ghz. U.S. Pat. No. 6,586,781 discloses methods and structures for reducing the trapping effect in GaN-based transistors. However, due to the high electric fields existing in these structures, charge trapping can still be an issue.